Leonard’s Da Vinci’s

Now this is pizza! Crusty dough and quality ingredients. Salads and steaks are delicious. Served on fresh Italian bread. The fruit strudel from the bakery and fresh cannolis are a family favorite. The owner is a nice Italian sweet woman. Her gravy and meatballs and sausage are the best! My husbands favorite is the Italian hoagies. Love this place!

First, I understand that 5 stars for a pizza place is high but consider the following reasons for the rating. I live in and report mostly on New York restaurants. Thus my comparisons are based on the competition locally. I have been in NE Philadelphia and comparing this to the local pizza (although in many cases, it holds up for pizza in New York as well). I live on Long Island and can walk to 4 pizza places in 5 minutes thus no shortage of good pizza. The pizza at Da’Vinci’s is better than any pizza I have had in Philadelphia including Toconelli’s (allegedly the best pizza in the city of Philadelphia). There are 4 components to a pie; dough, sauce, cheese and toppings. The other side of the pizza business here is a bakery that sells some of the best bread I have ever had. It has a wonderful crust and is a hearty old fashion loaf. These people know their dough and the «loaf love» transfers to the pizza. It was crisp on the bottom with a crust that was soft and chewy. Absolutely delicious. Philadelphia does «gravy». Order pasta and you get something more like slightly thinned out tomato paste. I have had it on pizza in several places as well. It is just way too heavy and compares to a Sunday Sauce minus the meat that might be served in a New York restaurant. Leonard’s uses a sauce more to the consistency of what I am accustomed to in New York and it was perfectly seasoned and not heavy. Plenty of cheese but not so much that it made the pizza heavy and oily. I ordered the pie with pepperoni and sausage. Plenty of both and they were cut a bit thicker to avoid shedding too much oil in the oven. So. in all, this was a superb pie for this area and would hold up to most of what I have lived on in New York. With out any doubt it is the best pie I have had in NE Philadelphia. By the way, stop in the bakery and take home a loaf of bread… make sure you have some good soft butter or olive oil waiting. They also have a complete menu of dinners and sandwiches.